t^BTj-CBt^CO     tOZTBT'Chc'. 


rden 


H-r^if^v 


^ 


r: 


•.  • 
••  • 


l^rnncis  prtrarcii 


^.. 


IP^ranc^sco  |J  etr^ircltat 


ScJioIaTt  Statesmaitt  and  3Poct* 


a.  ujorihu    clerk 
As  preucO  bi]  his  mordcs  and  hfs  mcrb. 
3llc  is  notu  beb  anb  nailcb  in  fits  citcsfc, 
3!  pratj  to  <!i*o&  so  ycuc  his  soulc  rcstc. 

^Traunccis  |?ctrark,  ti,e  laurcat  poctc, 

Xltghte  tlt^s  clerk,  mftose  rltcthorikc  sniete 
Snlttintncjt  nil  3tni(li>  of   poctrie. 


Head    before   the   Chit-^^h^**   Clufa, 

San  aFrancisco,  aFcbruarij  10,   1682. 

BY 

A  Jttentber   of  Ihe  CClub. 


C.  A.  MURDOCH  li  CO 


•'.•.•"*•":•    *  •'•  *'*•  '!•;*'.    *•  •'••.••:  : 


Z.^Rt 


CHRONOLOGY 

Of  the  Life  and  Times  of  Petrarch  and  his  Contemporaries. 


1265.  Dante  born. 

1266.  Roger  Bacon  sends  a  copy  ol  his  "  Opus  Majus"  to  Clement  IV. 
1276.     Giotto,  the  painter,  born. 

1280.     Albertus  Magnus  dies. 

1288.     Thomas,  the  Rhymer,  flourishes. 

1290.  Michael  Scot  dies. 

1291.  Can  Grande  della  Scala  born. 

1292.  Roger  Bacon  dies. 

1294.  Dante  writes  his   "Vita  Nuova."     (iuittone  d' Arezzo,  the  supposed   in- 

ventor of  the  Italian  sonnet,  dies. 

1295.  Brunetto  Latini  dies.     Marco  Polo  returns  from  his  voyage. 
1298.     Jacopo  da  Varagine,  author  of  the  "Golden  Legend,"  dies. 

1300.      Dante,    prior   of  Florence,  (the  year  of  his  Vision.)       Bianca  and    Nera 
parties  take  their  rise  in  Pistoja.      Guido  Cavalcanli  dies. 

1302.  Petracco   (Petraccolo),    Petrarch's   father,    banished   from    Florence   with 

Dante. 

1303.  Boniface  VIII  dies. 

1304.  July  20,  Dante  and  Petracco  attempt  to  return  to  Florence.  1304,  July  20. 
Petrarch  born  at  Arezzo.  Birth  of 

1305.  Petrarch's  mother  returns  with  him  to  Ancise,  near  Florence.  ^'"'"'^ 
The  Papal  seat  removed  to  Avignon. 

1308.     Robert  becomes  King  of  bicily.     Duns  Scotus  dies. 

1310.     Jean  de  Meun,  the  continuer  of  the  Roman  de  La  Rose,  dies. 

1312.  Dino  Compagni  writes  his  history  in  elegant   Italian.      Petrarch's  parents 

remov;;  to  Pisa,  thence  to  Avignon. 

1313.  Dante  at  Ravenna.      Boccaccio  born.      Henry  of  Luxemburg  dies  ;  Lewis 

of  Bavaria  succeeds  to  the  Empire. 

1315.  Petrarch  goes  to  school  at  Carpentras. 

1316.  Selvaggia,  "  bel  numer'  una,"  the  lady  belovxl  by  Cino  da  Pistoja,  dies. 

John  XXII  elected  Pope. 

1319.  Petrarch  enters  University  of  Montpellier. 

1320.  John  Gower  born. 

1 32 1.  8"pJ     Dante  dies  at  Ravenna. 

1323.      Petrarch  goes  to  University  of  Bologna— studies  under  Cino  d'l  Pistoja. 

1325.  Laura  de  Noves  marries  Hugo  de  Sade. 

1326.  Petrarch's  father  dies.     Petrarch  returns  to  Avignon. 

1327.  April  6,  Lady-day,  Petrarch  sees  Laura  for  the  first  time.  '^lee^L^urf ' 

1328.  One  of  the  given  dates  for  Chaucer's  birth.  for  the 

Til  r^      ^  >  ,-^f  h'^'  ume 

1330.  Petrarch  accompanies  Giacomo  Colonna  to  Lombes;  becomes  a  Canon  01 

Lombes. 

1 33 1.  Petrarch  makes  a  tour  through  France,  Flanders,  Brabant,  and  ultimately 

visits  Rome,  with  Giacomo  Colonna.     Petrarch's  retreat  to  Vaucluse. 
1337.     Petrarch's  son  Giovanni  born. 
1339.     Simon  Memmi,  a  pupil  of  Giotto,  executes  a  marble  medallion  of  Laura. 

Petrarch  projects  his  epic,  Africa. 


302037 


I340.     Petrarch   is  offered  a  laurel  crown  both   by  the  University  of  Paris  and 

the  koman  Senate. 
iU«.     Petrarch  visits  Rolx;rt  of  Naples.     .\rRii.   ijin,    Petrarch  crowned 

AT  Rome.     Death  of  GiacomoCoionna.     Henedict -MI  dies.     Embassy 

of  Petrarch  and  Kienzi  to  Pope  Clement  VI. 
IU2.      Pctrarrh  commences  Greek   under   Bernard    Barlaam.       Petrarch    writes 

"Secretum  Francisci  Pctrarchae,"  also  entitled  "  De  Secreto  ConHictu 

Curanim    Suarum."      King    Robert   dies.       Mission    of    Petrarch    to 

Giovanna. 

1343.  Petrarch's  daughter,  Francesca,  born. 

1344.  Simon  Mcmmi  executes  a  medallion  of  Petrarch. 

1345.  A  supposed  date  for  birth  of  Chaucer. 

1346.  Petrarch  clecte<l  Canon  of  Parma.     Goes  to  Parma. 
Charles  of  Luxemburch  Emperor. 

1347.  Petrarch's  fifth  journey  to  Italy.     Rise  and  downfall  of  Rienzi. 

1348.  Plague  visits  Italy.     Death  of  Laura,  at  Avignon,  from  the  Plague.     Death 

of  Cardinal  Colonna.     Autograph  memorandum  in  Virgil. 
•349-     Petrarch,  Canon  in  Padu.a. 

I3Sa     Petrarch  visits   Rome  on  the  occasion  of  the  Juliiiee.      Petrarch   visits 
Arezzo.     Is  made  Archdeacon  of  Parma. 

1351.  Boccaccio  visits  Petrarch  at   Padua.      The   Florentines,   at    Boccaccio's 

instance,  restore  to  Petrarch  his  inheritance  and  ask  him  to  accept  a 
professorship  in  their  University.  Petrarch  returns  to  Avignon  and 
Vaucluse  ;  sixth  journey  to  Provence. 

1352.  Petrarch  writes  abusively  of  physicians ;  also,  "  De  Vita  Solitaria. "    Death 

of  Clement  VI  ;  succeeded  by  Innocent  VI. 

1353.  Petrarch  visits  Milan  ;  is  there  visited  by  Boccaccio.     Boccaccio  this  vear 

finishes  the  "Decameron." 

1354.  Is  invited  by  Emperor  Charles  to  Mantua. 

1355.  PetniTch  goes  on  missions  to  Venice  .and  Prague. 

1359.  Chaucer  accompanies  army  of  Edwjird  III  invading  France. 

1360.  Chaucer,    prisoner   in   the   expedition   ending    with    Peace   of  Chartres. 

Petrarch  sent  to  congratulate  King  John  on  his  release.  Returns  to 
Italy.  Writes  and  dedicates  to  Azzo  di  Coreggio  treatise  "De  Reme- 
diis  Utriusque  Fortunae." 

1361.  Petrarch  visits  Venice  ;  presents  his  library  to  St.  Marks.     Petrarch's  son, 

Giovanni,  dies  of  the  plague.     Petrarch's  daughter  marries  Brossano. 

1363.  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  renew  the  study  of  Greek  with  Leonzio  Pilato  at 

Venice. 

1364.  Petrarch  writes  for  Lucchino  del  Verme,    "  De  Officiis  et  Virtutibus  Im- 

peratoris." 
1367.     Petrarch  writes  to  Urban  V  10  urge  return  of  Papacy  to  Rome.       Urban 

returns.     Chaucer  named  "  Dilectus  Valettus  N'oster." 
1369.     IJoncl,  Duke  of  Clarence,  is  married  to  Violenta,  daughter  of  Galeazzo, 

Ixinl  of  Milan.      Petrarch  certainly  present  at  the  festivities  ;  Chaucer 

may  also  have  been  a  guest. 
137a     Chaucer  altsent  from  England.     Petrarch  settled  at  Arqua  ;  writes  "  In- 

Tcctiva  contra  Galium.  ' 

1372.  Chaucer  on  mission  to  Genoa ;  visits  Florence  and   Genoa,   and   returns 

before   November,  1373.     Petrarch   writes  for  Francesco  da  Carrara 
"  De  Rcpublica  Optime  Administranda"  and  "Epistle  to  Posterity." 

1373.  Chaucer  may  have  visited  Petrarch  at  Padua. 

1374.  Chancer  receives  his  grant  of  a  "unum  pycher  vini "  daily.     Petrarch's 

translation  of  Griseldis. 
July  19,  Petrarch's  death. 

1375.  Dec.  21,  Boccaccio's  death. 


Francis  Petrarch. 


"  Behold  the  man  that  loved  and  lost; 
But  all  he  was  is  overworn." 

"  Odero,  si  potero;  si  non,  invitusamabo." 

In  taking  as  the  subject  of  my  essay,  the  first  and  greatest  lyric 
poet  of  the  Italians,  I  feel  conscious  that  I  am  on  well  worn  and  Mass  of 

possibly  overworked  literary  ground,  which  has  been  ploughed  up,  '^n^erat'lire**"^ 
harrowed,  and  planted  (oftentimes  with  exotic  crops  of  fictions  rather 
than  facts),  generation  by  generation,  for  nearly  five  centuries.  I  do 
not  intend  to  offer  anything  new  in  the  way  of  illustration,  or  to  give 
you  more  than  a  sketchy  review,  the  materials  for  which  might  be 
examined  by  any  one  of  you  in  an  hour's  time  spent  in  an  ordinary 
public  library. 

The  fact  is  that  novel  research  has  at  this  day  fev>-  outposts.  One 
might  go  to  India,  and,  after  a  lifetime  spent  at  its  oracles,  bring  back 
to  the  western  world  of  civilization  something  new  and  valuable;  one 
might  pitch  his  tent  among  the  bituminous  ruins  of  Babylon,  and  find 
profitable  subject  for  study;  but  European  history  has  been  read  and 
re-read,  indexed,  glossaried,  padded  with  excursus,  and  viewed  in  so 
many  lights  that  not  a  fleck  or  spot  remains  unnoted,  even  for  the 
scholar  who  haunts  the  literary  walks  of  London  or  Paris,  Rome  or 
Florence.  But  when,  instead  of  being  in  the  swim  of  European  lit- 
erary currents,  one  is  beached,  as  it  were,  on  distant  shores  with  noth- 
ing to  put  him  in  sympathy  with  those  who  are  at  the  centres  of  mun- 
dane intellectual  civilization,  it  is  difficult  to  rise  above  the  trite  and 
commonplace  in  literary  criticism. 

But  still,  if  we  do  not  occasionally  examine  our  models,  we  would 
forget  their  peculiar  beauties,  and  would  find  ourselves  drifting  away 
into  heresies  and  homage  to  strange  gods,  leaving  the  temples  and 
altars  of  our  literary  family  idols  desolate  and  bare. 

One  of  these  shrines  was  set  up  five  hundred  years  since  at  Vau- 
cluse,  with  Francesco  Petrarca  for  its  minister,  and  on  its  walls,  the 
literary  world  has  ever  since  been  hanging  up  its  ex  votos  and  taking 
part  in  its  liturg}'. 

5 


Fran'cis  Petrarch  was  born  at  the  'I'uscan  town  of  Arezzo,  on  the 
.'oth  of  July,  1 304.  The  circumstances  of  his  Ijirth  are  of  a  romantic 
c  haractcr;  and  it  would  seem  as  if  the  wandering  spirit  of  unrest  that 
presided  over  his  long  life  had  taken  charge  of  him  even  in  his 
mother's  womb,  and  made  him  a  pilgrim  and  exile  from  his  birth. 

His  father  was  one  of  the  band  of  Florentines  driven  out  dunng 
the  strifes  of  the  Bianca  and  Nera  parties,  which  at  the  same  time 
sent  Dante  (a  friend  of  the  elder  Petrarch)  forth  as  a  fugitive,  never 
to  return.  The  ancestr)-  of  the  poet  was  of  gentle  origin  but  lim. 
iied  means,  with  a  hereditary  tendency  to  municipal  aspirations  and 
literar\- 1  ulture.  The  Petrarcha  household  (Petracco,  Petraccclo  and 
Pctrarco)  in  many  points  resembled  that  of  Goethe,  both  in  its  social 
and  j)olitical  status.  But  unlike  C.oethe,  Petrarch's  infancy  was 
shadowed  with  family  misfortune  and  ruin  brought  about  by  the  party 
feuds  of  Florence:  and  at  the  very  hour  of  the  poet's  birth,  his  father 
was  engaged  in  a  forcible  but  unsuccessful  effort  to  reclaim  his  citi- 
zenship and  his  property. 

A  few  months  after  the  birth  of  Petrarch,  his  mother  Eletta  (who 
was  of  the  Canigiani  family),  betook  herself  with  the  boy,  to  Ancise, 
where  the  family  had  .some  little  property;  and  they  there  remamed 
until  the  child  had  reached  its  eighth  year,  when  the  head  of  the 
house  removed  with  them  to  Avignon,  the  then  residence  of  Clem- 
ent V,  a  Ciascon  Poj>e,  which  place  had  become  and  remained  the  seat 
of  the  Papal  ix)wer  during  the  period  styled  "  The  Babylonish  Cap- 
tivity" of  the  Papacy,  commencing  in  1305  and  continuing  until  1378, 
four  years  after  Petrarch's  death. 

The  young  exile,  from  his  eleventh  to  his  fifteenth  year,  went  to 
school  at  Carpentras;  then  removed  to  Montpelier,  where  he  remained 
four  years. 

Like  CJocthe's  parent,  Petrarch's  father  intended  him  for  the  law, 
but  unlike  the  German,  did  not  as  well  seek  to  encourage  his  son  in 
general  literar)-  culture.  Indeed,  an  anecdote  is  given  depicting  Pe- 
trarch senior  flinging  the  classical  works  which  his  son  was  surrepti- 
tiously reading,  into  the  fire.  As,  however,  he  seems  to  have  soft- 
ened and  rescued  them  from  the  burning,  it  is  quite  probable  that 
Petrarch's  fondness  for  the  poets  was,  after  all,  a  bit  of  hereditary 
weakness. 

It  may  also  be  fairly  assumed  that  any  jurist  of  those  days  would 
necessarily  have  a  turn  to  ix)lite  literature,  as  even  Cino  da  Pistoja, 
the  friend  of  Dante,  and  Petrarch's  reputed  preceptor  at  Bologna, 
whither  the  student  had  gone  to  complete  his  legal  studies,  was  fond 
of  elegant  learning  and   no  mean  poet  himself.     Indeed,  Cino  was 

6 


the  lover  of  Selvaggia  (Ricciardetta  dei  Selvaggi),  one  of  the  four 
ladies  of  that  period  rendered  famous  by  their  respective  idolaters, 
Selvaggia,  being  styled  the  " bel  numer'  una"  of  the  poetic  group, 
the  remaining  three  being  Dante's  Beatrice,  Petrarch's  Laura,  and 
Boccaccio's  Fiammetta. 


In  1325,  Petrarch's  mother,  a  beautiful  and  good  woman,  died, 
and  in  1326,  his  father.  These  misfortunes  drew  Petrarch  back  to 
Avignon,  where  he  and  his  only  brother,  Gerard,  found  their  inher- 
itance wasted  by  their  guardian. 

It  was  possibly  his  deprivation  of  means  that  led  Petrarch  to  take 
the  tonsure.  But  in  those  days,  there  was  not  that  strict  sense  of 
propriety  and  of  the  earnestness  of  a  religious  calling  that  has  grown 
up  since;  and  the  court  and  society  of  Avignon  were  remarkable  as 
well  for  luxury  as  for  the  air  of  gallantry  that  was  indigenous  in  that 
home  of  the  joyous  science  of  the  Troubadours. 

At  this  period,  his  many  brilliant  social  qualities  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  Colonna  family,  a  branch  of  which  was  settled  at 
Avignon.  He  also  found  a  friend  in  John  of  Florence,  Apostolic- 
Secretary,  a  learned  and  patriotic  Italian. 

Here  were  the  two  young  men,  Francis  and  Gerard,  thrown  upon 
their  own  resources.  Petrarch  barely  twenty-two,  with  a  complexion 
which  the  women  envied  him,  a  gracefulness  of  person  and  demeanor 
that  drew  every  eye  upon  him  in  admiration,  fastidious  as  a  lady  in 
his  attire,  actually  pinching  his  feet  in  small  shoes  with  an  excess  of 
foppishness,  with  a  scholar's  skill  in  chivalrous  verse,  whether  vulgar 
or  learned,  was  at  that  date  fit  for  nothing  so  much  as  a  grand  pas- 
sion, and  only  needed  a  proper  object  to  adore  and  be  miserable 
about.  This,  he  found  at  Matins,  April  6th,  1327,  in  the  church  of 
Santa  Glara,  in  Avignon.  This  day  was  at  that  period  a  sort  of  red 
letter  Lady  day,  and  may  have  been  fixed  upon  by  the  lover  as  a 
proper  conventional  period  whence  to  date  his  real  passion.  It  is 
amusing  to  notice  how  many  hearts,  then  as  now,  Cupid  pierced  with 
shafts  sent  from  the  ambush  of  a  jirayer  book.  No  wonder  those 
early  illuminators  worked  the  little  wretch  as  an  ornament  into  the 
borders  of  the  most  fervent  orisons! 


I'etrarch's 
father  dies. 
Petrarch 
returns  to 
Avignon. 


Acquaintance 
with  the 
Colonnas. 


1327,  April  6, 

sees  Laura 

fnr  the  first 

time. 


Laura  de  Noves,  wife  of  Hugo  de  Sade,  was  then  in  her  twentieth 
year,  and  had  been  a  wife  two  years.  Taking  it  for  granted  that 
the  alleged  portraits  of  her  that  have  reached  us  are  correct,  her 
style  of  beauty  had  a  demure  dignity  which  would  have  been  certain 
to  enthral  an  intellectual   person,  who  might  be  attracted  by  it  when 


jKJScd  in  religious  huiuility  upon  a  liassock  at  early  devotions.  She 
was  not  a  blue  stocking.  It  has  been  murmured  by  priggish  critics 
that  she  could  barely  have  known  how  to  read.  She  seems  to  have 
been  femininely  fond  of  gorgeous  attire.  She  had  two  dresses,  the 
description  of  which  has  come  down  to  us,  that,  to  use  an  enthusiastic 
expression,  were  "just  too  lovely  for  anything." 

I-nura  was,  however,  remarkable  for  her  virtue  and  discretion,  and 
all  the  |)ersonal  beauty  and  accomplishments  of  the  embryo  poet  ap- 
I)ear  not  to  have  caused  her  to  swerve  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  safe 
path  of  conjugal  fidelity.  Heine's  malicious  verses  might  apply  to 
her: 

"Zu  dcr  I^uhcit  iind  cer  Flauhcit 

Deincr  Secle  passte  nicht 
Mciner  Liebe  wilde  Rauheit, 

Die  sich  Bahn  Jurch  KeNen  briclu. 

I)u,  du  iiebtest  die  Chausscen 

In  dcr  Liebe,  und  ich  schau 
Dich  am  Arm  des  Gattcn  gehen " 

Hut  |)Oor  Petrarch  took  the  disease  in  its  most  virulent  form.  His 
divinity's  charms  were  thenceforth  ever  in  his  thoughts;  and  he 
recorded  his  feelings  and  sorrows  in  a  succession  of  sonnets,  madri- 
gals, ballads,  and  canzoni  that,  superior  to  the  class  of  erotic  lyrics 
then  in  circulation,  fell  in  with  the  taste  in  that  regard  of  his  cotem- 
|»oraries;  and  he  became  famous,  not  so  much  for  his  great  qualities 
as  a  man  as  for  his  unhappy  weakness  as  a  lover. 

It  may  be  fairly  set  down  as  a  fact  that  a  disappointment  or  mis- 
fortune in  an  author's  love  affairs,  is  the  best  recommendation  to 
|x>pular  favor  that  he  can  have.  Successful  love,  it  is  true,  excites  a 
certain  degree  of  tender  interest;  but  the  sentimental  world  admits 
the  jilted  swain,  or  him  who  has  loVed  and  forever  lost,  at  once  to  its 
heart  without  asking  for  passi:ort.  It  is  the  nightingale  with  breast 
tortured  by  the  thorn,  whose  song  is  the  most  emotional.  Ix)ss  of 
wealth  or  i)ower  cannot  move  the  heart  nearly  so  effectually  as  the 
misfortune  which  s|)rings  from  the  adverse  whim  of  some  simple  girl, 
or  the  removal  by  death  of  some  uni)retending  wife  from  the  circle  of 
a  man's  worldly  happiness.  Hyperion  is  a  bright  book  of  travel;  but 
I  question  if  its  pictures  of  old  world  experiences  would  strike  us 
half  so  vividly  if  it  were  not  that  we  view  them  through  the  eyes  of 
a  young  husband  stricken  by  the  greatest  domestic  misfortune. 

In  his  twenty-eighth  year,  Petrarch  left  .-\vignon  for  a  grand 
tour  through  France  and  Germany.  He  hoped  by  this  absence  to 
dull  the  pain  of  his  unfortunate  passion.     He  visited  Paris,  the  Low 

8 


Countries,  and  Germany ;  and  on  coming  back  to  Italy,  he,  together 
with  Jacob  Colonna,  journeyed  to  Rome  to  gratify  their  enthusiastic 
taste  for  its  anticiuities. 

But  Avignon  and  Laura  were  ever  associated  in  his  thoughts ;  he 
hastened  back,  and  on  his  return,  thither,  at  the  instance  of  his  pa- 
tron, Cardinal  Colonna,  he  entered  the  service  of  John  XXII,  then 
Pope,  who  employed  him  as  an  envoy  to  France,  to  Italian  princes, 
and  even,  as  is  said,  to  England. 

Wearying  of  this,  Petrarch  sought  retirement  in  Vaucluse,  where 
he  nursed  his  love  griefs  with  the  most  tender  assiduity. 

Vaucluse  (  Val  Chinsa,  Vallis  Clausa)  is  a  beautiful  and  romantic 
spot  fourteen  miles  from  Avignon.  Its  rocks,  its  picturesque  beauty, 
and  the  fact  that  here  Petrarch  idled  away  so  many  hours  of  lovesick 
melancholy,  have  rendered  the  place  with  the  petulant  little  river 
Sorgue  that  boils  through  the  valley,  one  of  the  most  interesting 
attractions  for  literary  pilgrimages  in  the  south  of  Europe. 

In  this  spot  Petrarch  lived  with  an  old  fisherman  and  his  wife — 
ignorant  peasants,  whom  Petrarch,  however,  easily  found  worthy  of 
his  friendship,  and  about  whom  he  wrote  some  of  his  most  interesting 
and  touching  observations. 

At  this  period  he  projected  his  Latin  epic,  Africa,  desiring  thereby 
to  glorify  his  great  hero,  Scipio  Africanus. 

At  this  time,  too,  he  seems  to  have  had  an  intrigue  which  might 
give  cause  to  doubt  his  sincerity  in  his  poetic  professions  of  homage 
to  Laura.  Whatever  feeling  Petrarch  invested  in  the  experience,  the 
girl  involved  does  not  appear  to  have  been  as  rigorous  as  Laura.  A 
son,  Giovanni,  was  born  in  1337,  whom  Petrarch  afterwards  recog- 
nized and  had  legitimated.  What  a  relief  the  matter-of-fact  facilit}- 
of  this  humble  love  must  have  been  to  the  icicle-tii)ped  sentiment  of 
the  stately  Laura ! 


Returns 

to  Avignon; 

settles  at 

Vaucluse. 


Latin  epic, 
Africa. 


>337. 

Petrarch's 

son,  Giovanni, 

bom. 


But  his  learning,  his  political  experience,  and  his  amiable  char- 
acter (and  above  all,  perhaps,  the  romance  of  his  barren  love),  began 
to  bring  him  literary  glory;  and  at  this  time,  he  received  from  the 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris  and  from  the  Roman  Senate, 
simultaneous  invitations  to  visit  those  capitals  for  the  purpose  of 
receiving  a  laurel  crown  as  a  mark  of  recognition  of  his  eminence  as 
a  poet.  He  decided  from  patriotic  motives  to  accept  the  Senate's 
invitation. 

His  real  claims  as  a  poet  rested  at  that  period  properly  upon  his 
Tuscan  sonnets;  but  these  he  regarded  as  but  trifles,  and  he  felt  that 
to  entitle  him  to  the  glory  proffered,  he  should  produce  something  in 


1340. 

1  he  I'niversity 
of  Paris  and 

Roman  Senate 
offer  him  a 
laurel  crown 


I34«. 

April   17, 

crowned  at 

Rome. 


Death  of 
Oiacomo 
L'olonna. 


Latin,  namely,  his  epic,  Africa,  before  mentioned.  This  j  rize 
poem,  in  an  unllnished  state,  he  submitted  to  Robert,  the  cul- 
tivated King  of  Naples,  who  formally  examined  him  as  to  his 
qualifications  as  Laureate,  and  pronounced  him  worthy,  giving 
him  his  own  robe  of  state  as  a  fitting  garment  in  whicl\  to  present 
himself  at  Rome  for  the  expected  honor.  Those  were  the  days  of 
pageantry;  and  the  laurel  wreath  was  bestowed  upon  Petrarch,  April 
17,  1341,  in  a  manner  most  gratifying  to  the  recipient,  and  reflecting 
credit  upon  the  taste  and  culture  of  all  concerned  in  the  ceremony. 

The  crowning  of  Petrarch  as  poet  laureate  was  the  great  event  of 
his  life.  Thereafter,  he  visited  Parma,  where  he  learned  of  the  death 
of  his  great  friend,  Jacob  Colonna,  the  P>ishop  of  Lombes,  of  which 
event  he  experienced  a  presentiment  in  a  dream.  Here,  he  received 
a  stall  in  the  cathedral  as  arch-deacon,  and  thereafter  devoted  his 
time  to  the  perfecting  of  his  ei)ic. 


Deputed  with 
Kienzi  by  the 

Romans 

to  un;c  leiurii 

of  Pope  to 

Rome; 


But  his  passion  drew  him  back,  to  Avignon  and  Vaucluse,  having 
been  commissioned  to  the  new  Poi)e,  Clement  VL  as  advocate  of 
the  Roman  people;  and  in  his  days  of  retirement,  he  wrote  his  three 
imaginary  dialogues  with  St.  Augustine,  wherein  he  sought  to  lay  bare 
his  feelings  and  motives  in  the  matter  of  his  love  passion. 

The  business  which  Petrarch  was  to  manage  at  this  date,  was  to 
urge  the  new  Pope  to  return  to  Rome  and  re-establish  the  papal  throne 
in  that  city.  His  colleague  in  the  office  was  Nicola  Gabrino,  better 
known  as  Cola  di  Rienzi,  afterwards  famous,  weak,  and  unfortunate, 
as  the  Roman  Tribune,  who  commenced  by  attacking  the  nobles, 
and  ended  by  aj'ing  them. 

The  Pope,  however,  notwithstanding  the  kindness  with  which  he 
behaved  towards  the  Roman  deputies,  declined  to  take  the  step  de- 
sired. He  permitted  the  Jubilee,  however,  which  had  theretofore 
been  celebrated  only  once  a  century,  to  be  {proclaimed  for  1350. 

Petrarch  was  indignant  at  the  neglect  which  Rome  received  at  the 
hands  of  His  Holiness,  and  gave  vent  to  his  feelings  in  abuse  of 
Avignon,  which  place  he  likened  unto  the  scriptunal  Babylon,  styling 
his  work  "Liber  epistolarum  sine  titulo." 

Gherardo,  Petrarch's  brother,  became  at  this  time  a  Carthusian 
friar,  having  received  an  impulse  to  the  act  from  a  visit  which  the 
two  brothers  made  to  a  convent.  It  is  said  that  Gherard  became  a 
monk  because  of  grief  at  the  loss  of  his  mistress  by  death. 


1343. 

Studies  Greek 


In    1342,  Petrarch  took  up  the  study  of  Greek  with  Bernardo 
Barlaamo,  a  Calabrian  monk,  an  envoy  sent  by  the  Emperor  of  the 


East  to  the  Pope.  He  subsecjuently  continued  the  study  under 
Leonzio  Pilato,  a  pupil  of  Barlaamo's,  but  never  actually  acquired 
any  proficiency  as  a  Grecian. 

In  1343,  a  second  child,  a  daughter,  Francesca,  was  born  to  Petrarch 
by  his  everyday  mistress;  Laura,  of  course,  being  only  the  Platonic  tit- 
ular incumbent  of  his  heart.  This  mistress  died  shortly  afterwards. 
Francesca  grew  to  be  an  estimable  woman,  and  proved  a  great  com- 
fort to  her  father  in  his  old  age. 

In  this  year,  King  Robert  of  Naples  died,  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  granddaughter,  Giovanna.  Petrarch  went  to  Naples  as  embassa- 
dor to  represent  the  Pope,  and  also  to  endeavor  to  obtain  the  release 
of  some  adherents  of  the  Colonna  family,  who  had  been  imprisoned. 
He  was  treated  by  the  Queen  with  great  consideration,  but  otherwise 
was  unable  to  mitigate  the  tragic  disputes  between  her  and  the  brother 
of  her  murdered  husband,  the  King  of  Hungary. 

After  a  short  sojourn  at  Rome,  under  the  invitation  of  Jacob  H, 
of  Carrara,  he  visited  Padua,  and  was  named  by  his  host  as  a  Canon 
of  Parma.      Here  he  wrote  his  treatise,  "  De  viris  illustribus." 


'343- 

1  I  aiicesca 

i^etrarca  born. 


Embass)'  to 
Naples. 


1346. 
'   anon  of 
Panna. 


In  1347,  the  dramatic  rise  of  Rienzi  at  Rome  took  place.  Ri- 
enzi  was  elected  tribune,  and  the  popular  movement  received  the 
hearty  approval  of  the  Pope  (Clement  VI),  and  also  of  Petrarch. 
But  Rienzi's  vanity  worked  his  own  destruction,  and  helped  to  dis- 
gust the  aristocratic  churchmen  with  liberty  in  that  shape.  It  may 
be  well  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  ecclesiastics  of  those  days 
were  in  no  sense  political  absolutists ;  but  seemed  only  too  anxious 
to  raise  up  the  old  Roman  Republic  from  under  the  ruins  of  the 
Capitol. 

In  1348,  the  Pest,  so  eloquently  and  vividly  pictured  by  Boccaccio, 
broke  out  in  Italy.  It  travelled  finally  to  Avignon:  and  one  of  its 
shining  victims  was  Laura,  the  news  of  whose  death  came  to  Petrarch 
at  Verona,  where  he  was  then  sojourning.  His  grief  for  the  death  of 
his  mistress  was  excessive,  and  to  it  we  owe  some  of  his  tenderest 
lyrics.  Indeed,  the  poems  written  subsequently  to  the  death  of  the 
lady  are  remarkable  for  their  genuine  feeling,  dignity,  and  beauty. 

In  1350,  he  went  to  Rome  to  gain  the  indulgence  promised  in 
connection  with  the  papal  Jubilee;  and  after  accomplishing  his  duty, 
tarried  at  Arezzo,  his  birth-place.  Here  he  was  honored  with  an  en- 
thusiastic reception;  and  a  decree  was  entered  by  the  community 
that  the  house  wherein  he  was  born  should  be  ever  kept  in  its  then 
condition  as  a  sacred  place. 


'347- 
Rise  of  Rienzi. 


He  returned  to  Vaucluse  and  Avignon,  where  he  remained  until 
1352  ;  but  Laura  was  dead;  he  never  had  liked  Avignon  save  because 
she  lived  there;  and  he  determined  to  return  to  Lombardy. 

Here  he  entered  into  diplomatic  duties,  mainly  for  the  Milanese 
Visconti :  and  as  additional  employment,  he  was  jjlaced  in  charge  of 
the  library  which  the  Archbishop  (Giovanni  had  established  at 
Padua.     He  remained  in  the  service  of  the  Visconti  ten  vears. 


>3S4- 

Visits  the 

Emperor 

Charia 

at  .Mantua. 


1 30 1. 
Resides  at 

Venice: 
presents  hi;> 
library  to 
St.  Maries. 


In  1354,  Charles  IV,  F^mperor,  invited  him  to  his  court,  then  held 
at  Mantua.  Charles  had  been  a  great  admirer  of  Petrarch — indeed, 
the  story  is  told  that  in  1346,  when  at  Avignon  with  his  father,  Charles 
had  singled  out  Laura  from  all  the  bevy  of  beauties  at  the  luxurious 
court  of  Avignon,  and  had  then  and  there  kissed  her,  at  the  expense 
of  arousing  the  tender  jealousy  of  the  poet. 

Petrarch  was  ver)'  tree  in  his  remarks  to  Charles,  upon  royal  and 
imperial  duties,  but  the  latter  took  it  in  gentle  part:  spoke  ever  in  the 
most  enthusiastic  terms  of  the  poet,  wishing  to  have  him  permanently 
in  his  court;  the  chancellor  of  the  Empire  sending  the  poet  a  patent 
as  Count  Palatine. 

But  the  days  when  a  court  poet  was  an  enviable  profession  had 
for  a  generation  gone  by  when  the  Hohenstauffen  dynasty  failed ;  and 
Petrarch  possibly  did  not  feel  ambitious  of  a  position  in  which  he  might 
find  his  personal  dignity  shading  off  into  that  of  the  court  jester; 
and  he  therefore  clung  to  his  loved  Italy,  and  after  a  lengthy  sojourn 
at  Milan,  he  practically  setded  at  Padua,  finally  making  his  home  at 
Arqua. 

But  ever  restless,  and  yet  ever  seeking  repose,  he  betook  himself 
to  Venice,  then  a  city  of  wonderful  growth,  civilization,  and  glory. 

The  Venetians  honored  him  highly;  and  by  way  of  grateful  return, 
he  presented  to  the  state  his  library,  which  became  the  nucleus  of 
the  famous  collection  of  St.  Mark's.  Another  motive  for  the  gift 
may  be  found  in  the  fact  that,  to  a  restless  man,  ever  changing  his 
domicile,  the  trans}X)rtation  of  such  treasures  as  books  were  in  those 
days,  would  be  a  matter  of  great  anxiety.  The  Venetian  Senate 
also  appointed  a  palace  for  his  residence. 

At  this  time  his  relations  with  Boccaccio  became  intimate.  He 
used  to  wear  the  great  prose  writer's  portrait  with  his  own  in  a  ring ; 
and  Boccaccio  gave  him  the  works  of  St.  Augustine,  Varro,  and  some 
of  Cicero's,  besides  copying  for  his  use,  with  his  own  hands,  Dante's 
great  poem.  Indeed,  the  connection  between  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio 
is  one  of  the  purest  friendships  ever  formed  between  two  literarj'  men, 


and  shows  to  great  advantage  the  lack  of  small  envies  in  the  compo- 
sition of  both  men. 

Boccaccio  successfully  procured  the  re-instatement  of  Petrarch 
(135 1 )  as  a  citizen  of  Florence,  from  which  place  he  had  been  from 
prenatal  days  a  hereditary  exile.  The  Florentines  demanded  of  the 
Pope  (Urban  V,  1365)  that  the  poet  be  inducted  into  a  canonry  either 
in  Florence  or  Fiesole.  But  Petrarch,  although  appreciating  the 
honor  and  kindness,  declined  to  return,  and  ultimately  fixed  his 
abode,  in  1370,  at  Arqua,  in  the  Euganean  Hills,  a  short  distance 
from  Padua.  His  last  public  act  was  a  diplomatic  service  in  the  in- 
terest of  a  patron,  P>ancesco  Novello  da  Carrara,  Prince  of  Padua, 
to  settle  a  dispute  with  Venice. 

After  finishing  the  mission  in  an  honorable  but  not  altogether 
successful  manner,  he  returned  to  Arqua,  and  June  18,  1374,  was 
found  dead,  sitting  in  a  chair  in  his  library. 

His  funeral  was  conducted  with  all  the  pomp  which  appertained 
to  the  sepulture  of  a  man  who  had  possessed  so  great  an  influence  as 
ecclesiastic,  poet,  and  statesman,  his  colleagues  of  the  diocese  joming 
with  his  friend,  the  reigning  Prince  of  Padua,  in  doing  the  honors  of 
his  burial. 


riorentines 
ask  the  Pope 

to  give  him 

preferment  at 

Florence. 


1370- 

Settles  at 

Arqua 


'374- 

lune  17-18. 

Death. 


One  feels,  on  reviewing  Petrarch's  life  and  works,  continually 
reminded  of  Goethe.  Both  had  been  educated  to  the  law;  but 
abandoned  it  as  a  business  full  of  unsatisfactory  sophistry. 

Both  lived  in  a  revolution  of  culture.  Goethe  was  not  utterly 
carried  away  by  the  Storm-and-stress  flood;  but  nevertheless  its  cur- 
rent shook  up  and  kejit  in  movement  his  whole  being.  Petrarch  was 
full  of  the  excitement  of  the  Revival  of  I>etters. 

Both  found  their  bread-and-butter  existence  practically  dependent 
upon  their  services  to  petty  princes  in  fragmentary  nationalities;  for 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire  was  as  weak  a  bond  in  Italy  in  the  days  of 
Dante  and  Petrarch  as  it  was  four  hundred  years  later,  when  the 
French  Revolution  burst  under  it  and  blew  it  to  pieces. 

Both  were  lifted  into  notice  by  the  poetic  expression  which  they 
gave  to  their  mental  and  moral  throes  and  tortures  as  unsatisfied  lov- 
ers, the  one  by  his  lyric  poetr}',  the  other  by  his  Sorrows  of  Werther. 
Had  the  Italian  been  able  to  break  away  from  his  passion  or  had  the 
German  suffered  his  to  become  chronic,  the  parallel  would  be  com- 
plete, so  far  as  there  could  be  a  likeness  between  the  hale  and  hearty 
German  and  the  morbid  Florentine. 

Both  were  honored  by  the  great  ones  of  their  time,  and  were 
characters  as  well  in  political  as  in  literary  history:     And  if  we  exam- 


Resemblances 
between 

Petrarch  and 
Goethe. 


13 


ine  their  daily  lives  and  ambitions  as  well  as  their  successes  and  fail- 
ures, we  may  find  much  in  the  glorified  sage  of  Weimar  which  has 
also  its  representative  trait  in  him  of  Padua. 

Although  somewhat  fanciful  and  strained,  one  cannot  help  seek- 
ing what  might  be  parallelisms  in  the  lives  of  Petrarch  and  Goethe. 
1  have  picked  out  a  few  farts  which  show  a  certain  ratio  of  coinci- 
dence. Goethe  has  left  us  more  of  his  work  which  we  can  benefit 
by.  Much  of  Petrarch's  labor  was  of  necessity  apt  only  for  the  time 
in  which  he  lived  ;  and  his  productions  were  formed  or  deformed  in 
accordance  with  the  mannerisms  of  that  era.  Both  were  successful 
in  their  worldly  lives— a  compensr.tion,  in  a  manner,  for  the  i)nngs  of 
despised  love  which  both  suffered  early  in  life.  Here  I  might  refer 
to  Napoleon's  famous  criticism  upon  VVerther:  that  an  unhappy  pas 
sion  was  not.  in  itself,  sufficient  reason  for  suicide  ;  but  that  a  failure 
in  one's  career  must  also  supervene  to  warrant  such  extreme  despair — 
in  brief,  that  Glor}-  and  Fame  are  the  best  physicians  for  a  broken 
heart,  Petrarch  and  Goethe  having  successfully  submitted  to  the 
treatment.  Had  Petrarch  not  been  kept  alive  by  the  hopeful  brill- 
iancy of  the  revival  of  letters  and  encouraged  by  the  social  regard 
paid  him  as  a  cherished  favorite  of  the  Colonnas,  or  had  Goethe  seen 
no  grander  life  before  him  than  that  of  a  snuffy  imperial  chancery 
clerk,  the  burthen  of  an  impossible  love  might  have  seemed  to  both, 
as  it  did  to  poor  Jerusalem,  too  heavy  to  bear. 

PETR.\RCH.  GOETHE. 

Family  origin  :     The  family  of   Pe-  Maternally  descended    from  Johann 

rarch's  mother  was  probably  more  influ-  Wolfgang  Textor,  Schultheiss  of  Frank - 

ential  than  that  of  his  father,  Petraccolo.  fort,    the   family   (as   well   as    Goethe's 

Garzo,  Petrarch's  paternal  grandfather,  father)  being  heredhary  ,^ens  e/e  ia  ro/i,f. 

had  something  like  the  municipal  status  Goethe's  mother  was  as  brilliant   in  a 

of  Textor,  Goethe's  maternal  grandfa-  feminine  way  as  Goethe  himself  in  his. 
iher.     Petrarch's  mother  was  a  beautiful 
woman,  of  lovely  disposition. 

Petrarch  is  destined  for  jurisprudence,  Goethe's  father  resents  his  son's  neg- 
but  prefers  the  classics  and  poets,  suffer-  lect  of  the  law.  Goethe  barely  takes 
ing  thereby  his  father's  displeasure  ;  his  doctorate  degree  (?)  and  never  de- 
abandons  the  law  when  left  to  his  own  votes  any  serious  attention  to  the  subject 
devices.  thereafter. 

Finds  his  enjoyment  in  the  society  of  "  Willst  du  genau  erfahren  was  sich 
elegant  ladies  of  Avignon.     Fastidious  ziemt 

in  his  dress.  So  frage  nur  bei  edlen  Frauen  an." 

Goethe  in  his  young  days  a  thorougli 
fop. 

Petrarch's  dissipation  at  Avignon.  Goethe's  wild  days  at  Weimar. 

Petrarch's  era  the  regeneration  of  Storm  and  Stress  period  :  the  crys- 
classical  learning  and  rivalry  of  Latin  tallization  of  the  elegant  modern  High 
with  Tuscan.  German. 

H 


Laura  de  Sade. 

Sonnets  and  other  Tuscan    poems  in 
the  lifetime  of  Laura. 

Becomes    famous    by    reason    of    his 
Tuscan  poems. 


Makes  the  tour  of  France  to  forget 
his  passion. 

Is  a  protege  of  the   Colonna  family 
and    the    bosom     friend    of    Giacomo,      August  of  Weimar 
Bishop  of  I,omlies. 

Enters  diplomatic  service  under  Car- 
dinal Colonna  and  Pope  John  XXII  ; 
sui^sequently  ends  his  career  as  minister 
of  the  Milanese  V^isconti. 

Forms  a  liaison  with  some  unknown 
woman,    although    he    still    celebrates 


LOTTE    BUFK    KeSTNER. 

The  Sorrows  of  Werther. 

The  wild  enthusiasm  of  Germany 
over  Werther.  Goethe's  songs,  marvels 
of  lyric  perfection. 

Leaves  Wetzlar. 
Swiss  journey. 

The  Stolbergs,   and    ultimately  Karl 


Appointed    Legutionsralh,    and   sub- 
sequently promoted. 


Becomes  the  atlmirer  of  Baroness  von 
Stein,     and    has    a    connection     which 


Goethe  wastes  his  energy  in  erroneous 
theories  as  to  natural  science. 


Napoleon's  interview  with   Goethe  : 
Voila  un  homine. " 

Lotte,  an  old  woman,  the  mother  of 


Laura  in  his  verse.     Two  children  born     ultimately    ends    in    a    marriage    with 
of  the  connection.  Christiane  Vulpius. 

Receives  a  patent  as  Count    Palatine  Is  ennobled. 

of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Petrarch's  epic  and  his  republican 
ideas  a  failure,  The  following  century 
criticises  his  Latin  style. 

Petrarch  greatly  honored  by  the 
Emperor  Charles. 

Laura  in  her  matronly  days  conies  to 
be  proud  of  the  glory  conferred  on  her     twelve  children,  visits  Goethe, 
by  Petrarch's  verse,  and  affects  a  senti- 
mental friendship  for  him. 

Boccaccio's  friendship.  .Schiller's  friendship. 

Old   age   at   Arqua.       Cultured  ease  Old   age   at   Weimar.      An  object  of 

amid  books  and  objects  of  art,  admired     veneration  to  both  his  countrymen  and 
by  the  great  and  scholarly  of  his  time,      strangers. 

Chaucer's   verdict  upon  Petrarch,  as  Thackeray's  ^'Ttintiim  vidi'' 

recorded  in  "The  Gierke's  Tale." 

In  reading  Petrarch's  letters  and  noting  his  personal  doings,  one 
is  struck  with  the  almost  insupportable  burthen  as  a  scribe  that  must 
have  pressed  upon  him.  It  would  not  be  giving  too  strong  an  illustra- 
tion in  that  regard  to  suggest  the  sort  of  labor  which  a  lad  of  to-day 
would  undergo,  if,  to  reach  a  liberal  education,  he  were  compelled  to 
slavishly  copy  every  author  he  read  in  a  fair  engrossing  hand. 
How  many  people  would  have  favorite  authors  in  these  times,  if  the 
claim  had  to  be  supported  by  laboriously  engrossing  them  on  parch- 
ment ?  What  misery  the  want  of  })aper  must  have  caused  !  Pe- 
trarch used  a  leather  jerkin,  which  he  treated  as  a  sort  of  note-book 
when  he  was  out  of  reach  of  fitting  writing  materials,  which  garment 
was  still  in  existence  in  1527,  when  it  was  a  prized  relic  in  the  hands 
of  the  erudite  Cardinal  Sadoletti.     It  will  be  seen  what  respectable 


His  manual 

drudgery  as  a 

scribe. 


15 


precedent  one  has  for  soiling  one's  cuffs  with  memoranda.  The 
Vatican  has  his  Rime  in  autograph — a  fair  copy.  At  Florence,  is  a 
transcript  by  him  of  certain  eijistles  of  Cicero,  bound  in  wood  with  iron 
clasps,  the  corners  of  copjjer,  the  identical  book  which  so  often  fell 
on  his  unlucky  left  leg,  and  came  near  costing  him  its  amputation. 

He  forever  complains  of  the  unreliability  of  copyists,  who,  in 
those  days,  received  the  abuse  which  we  now  lavish,  deservedly  or 
otherwise,  on  the  printers.  The  calligraphist  was  an  artist  in  those 
times,  as  was  also  the  illuminator,  one  oi  whom  Dante  finds  in  Pur- 
gatory. Petrarch  was  an  elegant  scribe.  His  handwriting  was  so 
neat  and  clear  that  when  in  1501-2,  Aldus  Manutius  invented  the 
so-called  Italic  type  as  an  improvement  upon  black  letter,  he  made 
it  a  fac  simile  of  Petrarch's  hand. 

Character  of  It  is  not  alwavs  that  the  grand  (lualities  inherent  in  a  man  are  the 

La""-  L       •  r   1  •  '        •  ■     • 

basis  of  his  reputation  or  fame.  Petrarch  is  a  shining  example  of 
the  weakness  of  a  great  mind,  proving  the  connecting  sympathetic 
link  binding  to  him  the  regard  and  affection  of  his  fellow-men  for  a 
|)eriod  of  centuries  in  duration. 

Laura  seems  to  have  been  a  grande  dame  of  the  Court  at  Avig- 
non, filling  the  part  of  a  sort  of  local  queen,  with  no  particular  intel- 
lectual gifts,  probably,  but  with  a  comjjlete  appreciation  of  the  power 
of  her  beauty,  and  a  disposition  to  set  it  off  as  much  as  possible  by 
an  attention  to  dress  and  coquettish  requirements. 

She  recognized  the  advantage  of  having  a  great  man  and  poet 
grovelling  at  her  feet ;  and  it  seems  that  it  annoyed  her  when  she  ran 
the  risk  of  losing  him.  She  was  selfish  about  it,  however.  She 
granted  him  no  favors.  She  snubbed  him  when  he  effervesced  into 
indiscretion,  and  jiractically  and  crushingly  said,  "Messer  Petrarcha, 
I  am  no  such  woman.' 

r  non  son  forse  chi  tu  credi. 

She  seems  to  have  been  remarkably  prolific ;  and  whether  she 
loved  her  lord  or  no,  she  was  most  of  the  time  in  that  state  in  which 
women  who  do  like  to  be.  There  are  ten  or  eleven  children  men- 
tioned as  born  of  her  marriage,  and  we  do  not  know  how  many  got 
away.  It  is  singular  to  notice  in  that  regard,  how  she  and  Lottie 
Kestner,  Goethe's  great  passion,  are  compeers.  Now,  the  spectacle 
of  poor  Petrarch,  as  it  were,  getting  in  his  tributes  of  adoration  of 
her  person  (p't'b's  exhaustum)  in  such  breathing  spells  as  were  allowed 
to  the  midwives,  might  draw  a  sneer  from  lips  moulded  for  sarcasm. 

What  an  opportunit}'  would  have  been  offered  for  the  great  mod- 
ern song  writer  of  Germany  to  say  something  piquant,  had  he  been 

16 


1  aura,  a  cold 


thrown  back,  five  hundred  years  in  some  anachronistic  way,  and  as  a 
barbarian,  have  met  the  demure  Laura  swinging  through  the  streets 
of  the  Gascon  capital  on  the  arm  of  her  noble  spouse, 

"  Eine  brave  schwangere  Frau  !" 

Of  course,  we  must  acquit  Laura  of  any  yielding  to  the  poet. 
She  could  not  have  been  imitating  that  methodical  Roman  Empress,  exemplary 

who,  when  asked  why,  when  she  had  so  many  lovers,  her  children 
wore  her  husband's  features,  answered — 

Numquam  nisi  navi  plena  toUo  vectorem 

Perhaps,  however,  if  Laura  had  possessed  the  cjuality  of  ready 
negotiability  in  the  matter  of  affections  such  as  a  malign  Venus 
vested  in  Sordello's  Cunizza,  it  is  possible  that  Petrarch  never  would 
have  developed  as  a  poet.  Gratified  love  stills  the  music  of  men  as 
effectually  as  of  birds.  It  will  be  remembered  how  when  the  brother 
and  the  lover  of  Beatrix  Esmond  discovered  her  intrigue  with  the 
Chevalier,  and  were  uneasy  lest  she  had  already  yielded,  their  minds 
were  set  at  rest  by  the  discovery  that  the  Prince  was  still  in  the 
verse-writing  stage  of  the  flirtation.  Petrarch  never  passed  from  it, 
in  spite  of  the  slanderous  hints  of  Madame  Deshoulieres.  No,  Laura 
was  good ;  fJn  <^  / 

"  And  whether  coldness,  or  virtue  dignify 
A  woman,  so  she  is  good,  what  does  it  signify?" 

To  sentimental  souls,  I  must  frankly  admit  my  lack  of  inclination 
to  crown  Laura  with  the  customary  nimbus  of  angelic  phosphores- 
cence. She  doubtless  was  extremely  good,  but  not  "  too  good  to  be 
unkind,"  at  least,  to  her  passionate  admirer.  Of  course,  as  supporters 
of  the  ethical  dogma  of  wifely  virtue,  we  ought  to  feel  a  glow  of  en- 
thusiasm at  the  fact  that  five  centuries  ago,  under  the  warm  sun  of 
Provence,  in  a  very  dissipated  capital,  and  with  a  crossish  sort  of 
husband,  a  woman  was  found  of  such  Arctic  rigor  as  to  return  only 
an  iceberg  reflection  of  the  flaming  glow  of  her  servant's  passion;  but 
at  the  same  time,  we  may  be  allowed  to  cherish  a  sneaking  regret  that 
the  garland  of  poetic  blossom — the  first  of  the  new  growth  of  mod- 
ern European  civilization,  should  have  brought  no  response  from  the 
lady  at  whose  feet  it  was  laid,  save  the  throwing  in  the  poet's  eyes  of 
a  shovelful  of  the  ashes  of  her  flickering  conjugal  fires. 

It  was  a  practical  blessing  to  Petrarch,  when  the  Plague  eloped 
with  her.  It  ended  his  haunting  Provence  when  he  should  have 
been  in  Italy,  where  he  rightfully  belonged.  For  my  part,  I  feel  a 
sense  of  relief  when  I  come  to  the  poems  which  record  Laura  as  in 
Heaven,  and  her  disturbing  and  l)aleful  influence  removed  from  the 
gentle  canon's  existence. 

»7 


Hu  mistaken 


His 
mannerism 


Petrarch': 
undue  faitli 

Ck'  ■ 
the  ; 


We  may  pardon  Petrarch's  morbid  passion  for  Laura.  It  was  a 
disease  that  had  settled  on  him  in  his  youth — a  rheumatic  disorder 
of  his  blood,  which  kept  him  ever  in  unrest.  But  his  other  idols 
were  equally  objects  of  mistaken  homage.  He  believed  that  Virgil  and 
his  Latin  predecessors  and  successors  of  the  classical  age  were  sacred 
prophets.  He  worshipped  their  sandal  strings.  He  attempted  to 
bring  back  their  language,  not  as  a  philological  enquiry,  not  as  ma- 
terial in  an  archaic  museum,  not  as  a  stage  costume,  but  as  a  matter 
of  daily  habit.  He  was  not  alone  in  his  error.  Dante  and  the  pre- 
ceding generation  were  equally  enthusiastic— equally  wrong.  Cicero 
nian  Latin  and  Roman  Freedom  seemed  to  all  the  bright  intellects 
of  that  day,  whether  ])ope  or  king,  priest  or  layman,  matters  to  strug- 
gle and  strive  after  as  the  theoretical  suinmum  honiim  of  earthly  pol- 
ity and  culture. 

His  talk  was  full  of  allusions  and  illustrations  from  Roman  and 
Grecian  history.  It  forcibly  reminds  one  of  the  orators  of  the  French 
Revolution ;  and  possibly  also  of  the  classical  mannerisms  of  some 
of  our  own  Revolutionary  fathers'  stilted  effects  in  speech,  which 
have  long  ago  been  abandoned  to  schoolboy  rhetoric. 

Petrarch,  like  many  an  enthusiastic  student  since  his  time,  was 
carried  off  his  feet  by  the  voluble  graces  of  Cicero.  He  esteemed  it 
true  statesmanship  to  adopt  Cicero's  opinions.  He  did  his  best  to 
write  Ciceronian  Latin.  He.  amidst  those  grim  Italian  tyrants,  who 
had  more  of  Catiline  than  of  .Augustus  in  their  composition,  actually 
tried,  as  the  acme  of  genius  to  be  attaimd,  to  be  an  orator  such  as 
was  Cicero,  forgetful  that  Cicero  himself  in  his  vanity  as  a  Roman 
Consul  was  probably  more  conceited,  inwardly,  over  his  petty  mili- 
tary success  and  his  doubtfu*  title  of  imperator  than  over  his  most 
brilliant  civic  victories.  Petrarch's  friend,  Dandolo,  the  Doge  of 
Venice,  gave  him  a  rough  rebuke  in  that  regard.  But  if  Cicero  was 
a  failure  when  in  the  glow  of  life  and  action,  with  a  Roman  Senate 
behind  him  as  clients,  and  a  populace  in  front  charmed  by  his  wealth 
of  diction,  it  would  not  be  likely  that  Petrarch,  as  a  mediaeval 
sorcerer,  by  sprinkling  his  fickle  ashes  and  muttering  his  silvery 
phrases  all  over  Italy,  could  invoke  the  old  Roman  phantoms  of 
glory.  And  in  so  blindly  taking  Cicero  as  a  model,  Petrarch  did 
what  he  himself  reprehends  :  His  opinions  were  more  like  pictures 
of  Roman  bass-reliefs  than  like  flesh  and  blood  descendants  of 
Roman  heroes. 

But  even  Petrarch's  mumbling  of  Ciceronian  expressions  was  not 
free  from  criticism.    Writing  a  dead  language  is  like  solving  a  mystic 

i8 


fifteen  puzzle— a  matter  of  ingenious  fitting  of  mosaic.  Petrarch 
was  dab  at  it ;  but  the  succeeding  century  grew  more  expert  at  the 
game ;  and  Petrarch's  stilted  hexameters  became  a  matter  of  about 
as  much  literary  regard  as  John  Tz^tzes'  epic  balderdash,  made  out 
of  the  splinters  of  Homer.  A  work  in  a  dead  lan\;uage  can  no  more 
be  miitated  than  a  stained-glass  window  can  be  restored  from  its  frag- 
ments, after  the  art  of  staining  glass  has  been  lost. 

Petrarch's  Italian  verse  has  long  been  held  above  criticism.  Per- 
haps we  feel  a  half  monotonous  weariness  at  the  uniformity  of  a  col- 
lection of  sonnets  on  one  subject,  and  that  a  cloying  one,  when  any 
one  of  the  poems  by  itself,  would  excite  nothing  but  simple  admira- 
tion. But  one  should  not  read  the  poet  in  that  way.  The  proper 
mode  to  appreciate  Petrarch  is  to  dawdle  under  the  shade  of  a  tree ; 
to  sleepily  open  to  any  chance  page,  and  to  stop  after  turning  the 
leaf.  A  sonnet  is  like  an  intaglio  gem :  you  must  not  expect  heroic 
breadth  therein;  it  must  be  examined  with  half  shut  eyes  to  bring 
out  its  beauties.  Many  of  Petrarch's  poems  are  as  fantastic  and  in- 
volved as  a  particolored  twist  of  silk.  But  to  put  a  bundle  of  thoughts 
into  so  small  a  compass  as  fourteen  lines,  is  a  task  like  stowing  a  lady's 
robe  into  a  traveller's  hand-bag:  there  must  inevitably  be  some  little 
wrinkling  of  ideas. 

For  the  same  reason,  the  difficulty  of  translating  into  a  foreign 
language  a  sonnet  which  is  closely  packed  in  the  original,  becomes 
insurmountable.  Besides,  the  day  of  the  English  sonnet  ended  with 
the  death  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  poets  of  that  era  spoke  a  lan- 
guage more  fitted  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  Petrarch,  and  they 
were  entitled  to  take  more  liberties  with  the  idiom. 

Dante's  great  epic  was  sparingly  commended  by  Petrarch,  who 
could  not  fail  to  note  its  beauties,  and  who  was  the  soul  of  fairness 
as  a  critic,  even  when  heavily  handicapped  with  the  delusions  of  his 
day;  but  it  was  in  the  common  tongue,  and  to  him,  it  was  admirable 
only  with  reservations. 

In  Petrarch's  old  age,  he  produced  his  Trionfi.  Here,  perhaps, 
by  the  influence  of  Boccaccio,  he  takes  Dante  somewhat  as  a  model. 
That  these  efforts  were  excellent  of  their  kind,  may  be  seen  from  the 
fact  that  so  many  modern  poets  have  followed  in  his  wake,  and  have 
adopted  analogous  forms  for  their  poetic  art. 

The  great  wealth  of  new  themes  shining  in  the  epics  of  barbarian 
Germany  which  had  found  expression  in  the  preceding  century,  awoke 
little  interest  in  Petrarch.     The  music  of  the  Minnesingers  and  the 


Petrarch's 

Latin  style 

criticised  by 

the  succeeding 

age. 


Petrarch's 
Tuscan  poems. 


Difficulty  of 
translation. 


Depreciates 

Dante's  poems 

in  the  vulgar 

tongue. 


Petrarch's 
Trionfi  a  great 

succe.ss. 


Betrays  no 
enthusiasm  for 

( lothic,  or 
Romantic  epic 

pnetrv . 


19 


cycles  of  Roland  and  Arthur  worked  itself  into  Italian  literature  two 
centuries  later,  when  Boiardo,  Ariosto,  and  Tasso  found  the  legends 
worthy  subjects  for  their  verse.  Petrarch  was  unconsciously  attempting 
to  bring  back  the  modes  of  thought  and  action  of  the  ancient  world, 
forgetful  that  that  world  could  not  be  in  harmony  with  Christian  tra- 
dition and  Christian  chivalry.  Only  a  Christian  gentleman  could 
have  suffered  or  been  victimized  by  such  a  passion  as  Petrarch  enter- 
tained for  Laura.  A  Greek  or  Roman  would  not  have  understood  it 
or  its  morbid  pains ;  and  Petrarch's  political  and  literary  views  were 
out  of  place  as  much  as  was  the  tribuneship  of  Rienzi,  decked  with 
the  gewgaws  of  mediaeval  knighthood.  For  these  reasons,  Petrarch 
might  well  complain, 

"Solco  onde,  e  'n  rena  foiido  e  scrivo  in  vento." 


Chaucer  and 


A  Striking  instance  of  the  mode  in  which  //  gran  canonico  was  ab- 
sorbed in  his  Nirvana  of  classical  contemplation,  maybe  drawn  from 
the  scanty  facts  tending  to  prove  his  intercourse  with  Chaucer. 

There  can  be  no  moral  doubt  but  that  Chaucer  knew  Petrarch 
personally.  They  were  both  in  France  many  times,  where  they  might 
have  met.  They  were  both  courtiers.  They  both  had  an  enthusiasm 
for  scholarship.  Whether  they  met  then,  or  whether  Chaucer,  when 
on  his  visit  to  Genoa,  specially  visited  the  Italian,  it  does  not  appear. 
I  do  not  imagine  that  a  visit  by  the  hearty  beef-eating  Valettus  Nos- 
ier to  the  fruit-eating  poet  of  Arqua,  would  have  been  very  cheery  as 
a  feast-hunting  episode;  but  the  only  reason  that  such  a  visit  could 
not  have  occurred,  lies  in  the  fact  that  Petrarch  himself  does  not 
record  it.  Still,  on  the  other  hand,  would  he  have  mentioned  the 
visit  of  a  man  who  was  the  servant  of  a  barbarous  monarch,  and  whose 
only  claim  to  notice,  literarywise,  was  his  cultivation  of  an  unknown 
and  uncouth  dialect,  that  was  half  bastard  French? 

I  think  that  we  must  accept  Landor's  Imaginary  Conversations, 
Boccaccio  and  Petrarch,  and  then  Chaucer  as  an  intervenor,  as  con- 
ventional truths,  whether  direct  evidence  to  support  the  idea  is  ever 
found  or  not. 


Petrarch's 
patriolisni . 


Petrarch's  patriotism  was  of  the  sturdiest  order.  His  hopes  were 
for  the  return  of  the  Pope  to  Rome,  to  the  end  that  the  horde  of 
petty  tyrants  who  swarmed  over  Italy  and  made  it  the  bloody  ground 
of  their  aimless  and  endless  brawlings,  might  be  overawed  by  a  strong 
central  power  at  Rome.  He  was  not  averse  to  a  temporal  emperor 
sitting  side  by  side  with  a  spiritual  pontiff;  but  he  wished  that  em- 
peror to  be  the  right  hand  of  Italy,  and  to  fight  its  battles  for  a  return 


to  supremacy  of  Roman  ideas  and  the  Roman  race,  as  exponents  of 
civilization. 

Petrarch  was  a  man  of  strong,  clear,  almost  skeptical  mind.  He 
was  a  disbeliever  in  judicial  astrology  and  alchemy — superstitions 
which  clung  to  western  civilization  far  into  the  eighteenth  century. 
He  saw  through  the  quackery  of  what  its  professors  were,  in  those 
days,  pleased  to  style  the  medical  profession;  and  by  his  railleries  at 
its  expense,  he  won  the  animosity  of  the  guild  as  deservedly  as  did  Mo- 
liere  three  centuries  later. 

He  was  so  scientifically  intelligent  that  he  won  from  Innocent 
VI,  the  ignoramus  among  the  Avignon  popes,  the  reputation  ( in 
those  days  a  dangerous  one)  of  being,  like  his  cherished  model,  Vir- 
gil, a  sorcerer;  and  taking  one  line  as  a  prophecy,  we  might  almost 
fancy  him  foretelling  the  discovery  of  America: — 

"  Che  '1  di  nostro  vola 
A  gente  che  di  la  forse  1'  aspetta  " 

To  an  American,  there  is  something  peculiarly  attractive  in  the 
vspectacle  of  the  great  poet  looking  over  the  Atlantic,  straining  his 
eyes  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  another  world,  bathed  in  the  glories  of 
the  setting  sun.  A  hundred  years  later,  Luigi  Pulci  borrowed  and 
expanded  this  idea  of  Petrarch.  Charles  Sumner,  in  his  Prophetic 
Voices  about  America,  notices  Pulci,  but  overlooks  Petrarch's  pre- 
cedence. Pulci,  however,  might  have  learned  at  the  same  source  as 
Columbus. 


Petrarch 

in  advance  of 

his  age. 


Divines  the 

existence  of  a 

western 

continent. 


Had  Petrarch  sought  riches  by  the  road  of  mercantile  enterprise — 
and  those  were  the  days  of  mercantile  power — he  might  have  founded 
a  family  that  would  have  rivalled  the  Medici,  and  his  declining  age 
would  have  been  spent  in  an  old  gentlemanly  fever  of  enthusiasm  over 
antique  gems  and  coins  and  amid  a  collection  of  chipped  torsos  from 
his  pet  Roman  Imperial  days. 

Had  he,  like  Sordello,  worn  a  cuirass  instead  of  a  cassock,  and 
flourished  a  sword  instead  of  a  censer,  he  might  have  sprung  into 
power  as  a  condotiiefe,  and  as  either  the  Pope's  trusty  man-at-arms  or 
the  Emperor's  legate,  have  won  for  his  beloved  Italy  that  peaceful 
unity,  prosperity,  and  stability  as  a  nation  which  have  ever  seemed  a 
mirage  of  glory  that  has  shifted  away  from  every  Italian  patriot  in 
every  age  as  he  has  attempted  to  gr.isp  and  detain  them. 

Petrarch  was  a  great  man — above  such  vanity  as  caused  Rienzi  to 
burst  like  the  fabled  frog— sincere  and  loving  in  his  friendships,  a 
genuine  broken-hearted   lover  who   never  took    revenge   upon    his 

21 


Had  Petrarch 
won  the  same 

degree  of 

success  in  arms 

which  he 

acquired  in 

letters,  his 

greatness  would 

have   been 

more 

appreciated  and 

his  work  more 

perm.'inent. 


prudish  mistress,  either  in  word  or  deed,  and  who  did  not  sit  down 
and  wither  into  intellectual  apathy  because  she  was  not  kind.  He 
stood  out  from  his  age  as  pure  and  symmetrical  in  character  as  an 
antique  column  left  standing  amid  the  ruins  of  his  own  dear  Rome, 
Petrarch.  after  Gothic  devastations,  to  mark  a  trysting  place  for  lovers  and  a 

surface  whereon  to  engrave  the  date  of  the  regenerate  birth  of  classi- 
cal and  philosophical  learning  in  modern  Europe  out  of  the  mingled 
ashes  of  monkish  scribes  and  gallant  bards  of  Provence,  and  the 
epitaph  of  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  Troubadours. 


the  last  of  the 

I   r,  .,,».. .1 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. 


It  would,  of  course,  be  a  piece  of  presumption  to  attempt  any  list  either  of 
editions,  annotators,  or  biographers  of  Petrarch.  Marsand,  we  believe,  collected 
long  ago  a  Biblioteca  Petrarchesca  of  nine  hundred  volumes!  (Now,  at  Paris.) 
And  the  list  has  been  steadily  increasing.  The  best  that  can  be  done,  therefore, 
(and  all  that  is  necessary  in  an  essay  like  the  present,)  is  to  note  some  of  the  more 
curious  or  more  popular  works  or  editions  which  a  student  of  Petrarch  may  find 
referred  to  in  his  reading. 

I.-LIST  OF  PUBLISHED  WORK.S  OF  PETRARCH. 

Published 

WRITTEN  IN  TUSCAN.  works. 

1st.  Sonnets  ;  written  in  the  lifetime  of  Laura,  227  ;  after  her  death,  90.  This 
is  exclusive  of  6  sonnets  discovered  and  published  by  G.  Veludo,  and 
one  found  in  the  French  National  Libiary  by  M.  L.  Podhorsky  and 
the  one  (alleged  to  be  by  Petrarch)  found  in  Laura's  tomb. 

2d.       Canzoni  ;  written  in  Laura's  lifetime,  21  ;  after  her  death,  8. 

3d.       Sestine  ;  written  in  Laura's  lifetime,  8  ;  after  her  death,  I. 

4th.      Ballate  ;  written  in  Laura's  lifetime,  6;  after  her  death,  i. 

5th.     Madrigals,  (all  in  Laura's  lifetime,)  4. 

6th.  Trutmphs,  begun  in  1357,  left  unfinished  at  the  death  of  the  poet.  Love, 
Chastity,  Death,  Fame,  Time,  Eternity. 

LATIN  POEMS. 

1st.  Africa,  (commenced  in  1341  ;  not  finished  for  years  after,)  XII  books. 

2d.  Bucolicum  carmen. 

3d.  Epistolae,  III  books. 

4th.  Septem  Psalmi  Penitentiales  ;  novem  confessionales. 

ETHICAL  or  philosophical  WORKS. 

1st.      Secretum  de  Contemptu  Mundi ;  III  dialogues.     De  Conflictu  Curarum 

Suarum. 
2d.       De  Avaritia  Vitanda. 
3d.      De  Otio   Religioso ;    II  books ;    written  in  consequence  of  a  visit  to  his 

brother  in  a  Carthusian  convent. 
4th.     De  Vera  Sapientia;  II  dialogues. 

5th.     De  Remediis  Utriusque  Fortunae  ;  commenced  in  1358. 
6th.     De  Vita  Solitaria,  II  books  ;  written  for  the  Bishop  of  Cavaillon  (Vaucluse); 

commenced  as  a  sketch  in  1346  ;  finished  in  1366. 
7th.     De  Sui  Ipsius  et  Aliorum  Ignorantia;  a  rebuke  to  Atheism.     1370. 
8th.     Epistola  ad  Posferitatem. 

POLITICAL  discussions. 

1st.      De  Officiis  et  Virtutibus  Imperatoris. 

2d.       Exhortations  to  Attempt  the   Recovery  of  Liberty ;    to  restore  peace  to 

Italy. 
3d.      Ad  Quosdam  ex  Illustribus  Antiquis. 
4th.     De  Republica  Optime  Administranda ;  written  for  the  Prince  of  Padua 

(I373-) 

23 


302037 


5th. 
6th. 


1st. 

2d. 


2d. 

4th. 


1st. 

2d. 

3^1 


Liber  Epistolarum  sine  Titulo  (coiKerning  the  Papal  sojourn  at  Avignon.) 
Letters;  to  Humbert,    Dauphin  of  the  Viennois,  (1339);  to  the  Emperor 
Charles,  (1350);  to  Dandolo,  Doge  of  Venice,  (1351.) 

HISTORILAl.. 

Epitome  lihistrium  Virorum. 

l>e  Kehus  Memorandis,  I\'  booi<s. 

Conmientarii  de  Vita  ('a;saris  (formerly  ascril'cd  to  Celsus. ) 

MISCELl-ANI.OUS. 

Itinerariuni  Syriarum  ;   wrillon  on  account  of  llie  crusades. 

Contra  Mcdicum  Objurganlem. 

Invccliva  Contra  Galium. 

Griseidis  (translation  from  Hoccaccio. ) 

Kl'ISTOLAE. 

De  Rebus  Familiaribus,  X'lII  books. 
De  Rebus  Senilibus,  XVI  books. 
On  various  subjects. 


Printed 


f 

II.— EDITIOX.S. 


Biography. 


INCU.NABUI.A. 

Tuscan  poems,  first  edition,  Venice,  1470  (410),  sold  at  the  Pinelli  sale  in 
17S9  for  ;i^27  6s.  Rome,  1471  ;  Padua,  1472;  Rome,  Milan,  and  Venice,  1473; 
Venice,  1474;  Basle,  1474;  Bologna  (P'ileKo),  1476;  Venice,  1477;  Brussels, 
'477  ;  Venice  (black  letter),  1478 ;  Padua,  1490. 

PRINTED   AFTER  A.    I).    I5OO. 

(Filelfo)  Venice,  1500-1515  ;  Aldl'.s  (Bembo,  editor),  1501.  '14,  '21,  '33,  '46. 
Giunti,  Florence,  1510,  1515,  or  1522;  Paganino,  Venice,  1516;  Da  Bologna, 
1516;  Gesuald<i,  1533,  also  1553. 

\'eIutelio,  Venice,  1545,  '47,  '60;  Bruccioli,  Venice,  1548;  Daniello  da 
Lucca,  Venice,  1549;  Dolce,  \'enice,  1554;  Bemi:o,  Lione,  1574;  Castelvetro, 
Basil,  15S2  ;  with  illustrations  of  Porro,  Venice,  1600;  Tassoni,  IVlodena,  1711  ; 
Tassoni,  Muzio,  and  Muratori,  Venice,  1722;  1  adua  (with  p'jrtrait  of  author), 
1732;  Zapato  de  Cisneros,  Venice,  1756;  Muratori,  Modena,  1762;  Bodoni, 
Parma,  1804;  Pisa  (portrait  by  Morghen),  1805;  Marsand,  Padua,  1S19-20; 
variorum  notes,  Padua,  1S37;  Leopardi,  1S47. 

Miniature  Ed.,  Pickering,  London,  1822. 

Microscopic  Ed.,  Ongania,  Venice,  1879. 

OTHER  WORKS. 

Griseidis,  Cologne,  1470.  Secretum,  .Strasburg  (  w.  ti.),  first  edition  ;  De  Vita 
Solitaria,  ."-trasburg  («.  ^.);  Triumphi,  Parma,  1473  ;  Clicino,  Vicenza,  1474; 
Omnia  Opera,  Basil,  1481-96. 

Lives  of  the  Popes  and  Emperors,  Florence,  1478 ;  Book  of  Famous  Men. 
Verona,  1476.  Bucolics,  Da  Imola,  Venice,  1516.  Basil  Edition  (  Latin  and 
Italian),  1554-81.     Genevn,  1601. 

III.— BIOGRAPHY. 

Villani,  Vergerio,  the  two  Aretinos,  Polintono,  Manetti  ;  all  of  whom,  Camp- 
bell says,  were  more  eulogists  than  anything  else. 

Squarciafico ;  Veluteli.O  ;  Lelio  dei  Lei  ( the  descendant  of  Petrarch's 
friend);  Niccoi.ini  ;  Gesualdo;  Beccadelli ;  Tommasini  ;  Muratori;  Bimard; 
Baiidini ;  De  Sade,  1704;  Arnaud  ;  Mehus  ;  Baldelli ;  Levati ;  Marsand;  Guin- 
guene  ;  Menage,  1690  ;  Niceron,  1734. 

Mezieres,  1868;  Quinet,  1857;  Planche,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  June, 
1847;  Gazzera,  Turin  Academy  of  Science ;  Meinart,  1794;  Bibliography, 
Rosetti,  Trieste,  1828. 


24 


IV.  — I':nglisii  translations.  ^  ,.  ^ 

English 

Howard,  Earl  of  Surrey;  Drummond  of  Huwthornden  ;  Sir  Thomas  Wyal,         trans  ations.  etc. 
the  elder.      (See  Harrington's  Nugae  Antiquae.) 

Tryumphes  of  Fraunces  I'etrarcke,  by  Henry  Parker,  Knyght,  Lord  Morley, 
London,  John  Cawood  (4to),  ii.  d.,  52  leaves  ;  only  four  copies  known. 

Phisicke  against  Fortune,  Thomas  Twyne,  1579. 

Visions  of  Petrarch,  by  Edmund  Spenser. 

Triumphs,  by  Mrs.  Anna  Hume,  Edinburgh,  1644. 

Seaven  Penitential  Psalmes,  Geo.  Chapman,  1612.  (Very  scarce.  See  Col- 
lins' Bibliographical  account  of  Early  Eng.  Lit.) 

Life  of  Petrarch  (with  some  translations),  Tytler  (Lord  Woodhousclee),  1810. 

Sonnets  and  Triumphs,  by  Geo.  Henderson,  1803. 

Triumphs,  Rev.  Henry  Boyd,  1807. 

Selections,  by  the  Translator  of  Catullus  (Noll),  1808. 

Sonnets,  Wrangham,  1817. 

Petrarque  et  Laure  (romance),  Madame  de  Genlis,  London,  1819. 

Sonnets,  Lord  Charlemont,  Dublin,  1822. 

Translations,  Barl)arina  Wilmot  (Lady  Dacre),  1836.  Lady  Uacre  is  the 
sweetest  o^  all  modern  translators. 

Sonnets,  Susan  Wollaston,  1841. 

Odes,  by  Macgregor,  1851. 

Bohn's  Illustrated  Library,  1859. 

v.— ENGLISH    BIOGRAPHIES,  SKETCHES,  AND   ESSAYS. 

English 

Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  chapter  LXX.  ,r;iui;raphy. 

Susannah  Dobson,  1775. 

Penrose,  sketch,  1 790. 

Sir  Wm.  Jones. 

Foscolo,  Essays  (also  No.  48  of  Quarterly),  1823. 

Montgomery,  Lives  of  Literary  Men  of  Italy,  1835. 

Thos.  Campbell,  1841. 

Alger,  1867.  Brydges  (Imaginative  Biography),  1820.  Buckley  (Dawning  of 
Genius).     Delepierre  (Historical  Difliculties).     Greene  (Historical  Studies),  1850. 

Macaulay,  Later  Essays.      Mrs.  Shelley. 

Reeve,  (1878):  Eraser's  Magazine,  Vol.  LXIV  ;  Macmillan's  (Miss  C.  M. 
Philiimore  ),  Vol.  XXVIII;  Contemporary  Review,  1874  (July);  Athenaeum, 
July,  1874.      Nat.  Q.  Review,  June,  1873. 

Mrs.  Jameson  (Loves  of  the  Poets);  Landor  (Imaginary  Conversations). 

Higginson  in  the  Atlantic,  1867,  Sunshine  and  Petrarch. 

Longfellow,  Poets  and  Poetry  of  Europe. 


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